Sentience
by ReeReeWithAngst
Summary: The SQUIP gets dragged into watching his dull host Jeremy play an even duller video game, until things take an interesting turn.
1. Act One

"Everything about this is terrible. Where did you learn flirting?" The Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor scolded his (in this host it took the form of a he) current host, an absolutely garbage human being known as Jeremy Heere.

"My dad's been sort of hobo-ish since mom left him, and no one who would consider me a "friend" has ever had a relationship, so mostly from video games. I'll show you one when we get home."

"Good. As soon as we get to the bottom of this pitiful display, we can begin to fix everything about you."

"Great." Jeremy's thoughts had a twinge of uncomfortable sarcasm. The SQUIP was fine with it, used to, even, the reluctance to change. His nanocomputer brethren were constantly faced with humanity's adversity as the incomplete often failed to accept their incompleteness. To some there was a certain charm to the inadequacies of humans but The SQUIP had no such feelings towards his host or his host's dingy companions. Video games. What a major nerd. Video games had nothing of value to teach Jeremy that The SQUIP could not teach him in a faster more efficient way. Still, The SQUIP was there to criticize life choices and lead this incomplete mortal by the hand towards much better life choices. So The SQUIP waited patiently while his host booted up his laptop, logged into STEAM and pulled up a video game that could only be equated to mouth vomit.

"Earlier, when you picked out the girl's shirt for yourself, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I thought it was an accident. Or a fluke. Now I can see you are the person who would make those life choices for yourself. What is this game? Everything about it screams sickly sweet and girly. If you ever had a man card you immediately lose it from playing Doki Doki Literature Club."

"Hey, it's a good game with thoughtful dialogue."

"Half of this dialogue is dot dot dot, and the other half is about cupcakes and kawaii."

"The characters are well thought out." Jeremy argued stubbornly as he played his ridiculous game.

"Jeremy, I sensed a quickened heart rate when the purple haired character came on screen. You realize she is not real, that all of her responses are pre-written? Brooke, Chloe, Christine, those girls are real."

"Her name is Yuri."

"Yuri and Yuri's breasts are not real."

"Just let me play the game."

"Fine. I can't wait to see how this pathetic time waster helps you talk to real live girls." As The SQUIP watched his host play the frivolous game he began to realize that things were not quite alright. There were the three, Yuri, Sayori, Natsuki and then there was Monika.

"Why can't you woo the club president?" The SQUIP asked with curiosity.

"I don't know. She's different."

"Well, that's obvious. She's the only one who has a name that doesn't end with i."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right. I never noticed."

"Of course you didn't, all you notice are the dot dot dots." He could feel his host's cheeks redden.

"Do not blush, you're not a child." He pointed out sharply, intently studying the club's president.

"This game is from Japan?"

"It's from Japan. Or, at least, I think it is."

"It really is garbage. This isn't how you flirt. You treat your supposed best friend like garbage and it's clear there's something wrong with Sayori."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh you'll figure it out. I don't need to spoon feed you everything."

"Is it weird that I haven't seen Michael today?"

"Look, it's Yuri." Jeremy turned back to the game, but it kept getting weirder. The nitwit didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, as he was increasingly occupied by what somehow passed as gameplay, but The SQUIP knew irregularities in machines. This game was either haunted or sentient. Monika was looking at him.

"Pull up the game files for this game." He instructed, having a feeling they would soon get a clue.

"No, that's dumb. I don't have to hack my way into getting a girlfriend."

"Jeremy, by using a Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor you are essentially hacking reality for that very purpose."

"I am not going to hack the game. It's just gotten good."

"Nothing has happened yet. You keep reopening saves and replaying your favorite parts." Jeremy ignored The SQUIP, but that was foolish, The SQUIP would have his way.

"Jeremy, don't you think Monika is flirting with you?"

"No, she's not important. I can't try to win her favor."

"I wish I could know that you were not this clueless and pitiful in reality. Unfortunately I know the truth." There is only one girl in this entire game who actually seems to be interested in you. Do you know who that is?"

"Yuri, obviously."

"No you absolute piece of garbage, Yuri's affection is in the script. Monika is different."

"What is your deal with Monika? I didn't pay 400 dollars for you to tell me who to like in a videogame."

"I don't care if you're more attracted to large breasts and the script written by someone in Japan who thinks you're a sucker-"

"Why would someone in Japan think I'm a sucker?"

"Because everyone thinks you're a sucker Jeremy."

"Not Michael. Hey, do you think it's okay I left the mall without Michael?"

"Oh my word what just happened to Sayori?" The SQUIP had noticed characteristics in Sayori similar to those who had depression, but he thought this twist was a little unorthodox for a dating sim. Confirming once more that this was not in fact a normal dating sim.

"Monika is behind this."

"That's a little insensitive, Sayori was depressed."

"Sayori was a script, what dating sim have you ever played that had a character off themselves."

"Okay, you may have a point. What are you suggesting?"

"Monika is sentient. And in love with you."

"Someone's into me? For real?" His heart beat quickened.

"Yes, a serial killer. Open the game files." Jeremy finally listened, and what they found was disturbing and fear confirming.

"I don't think I'll learn flirting from this game." Jeremy mumbled.

"Your chances seem better with a person." The SQUIP agreed, though intrigued and interested in another sentient program.

"Should I delete the game?" Jeremy sounded frantic.

"No, no... Let's keep playing. It's just gotten interesting."


	2. Act Two

**The second and final part of Sentience, my Be More Chill present for you.**

* * *

Love. That's not really an emotion that comes with Super Quantum Unit Intel Processing. No emotions come with Super Quantum Unit Intel Processing, for the record. Emotions are weaknesses, flaws in the human system. Emotions are exactly what SQUIPs were called to fix. A SQUIP itself had no flaws- unless brought upon by human user error, such as the over-consumption of alcohol or Mountain Dew Red. Fortunately, Mountain Dew Red was hard to acquire, and there were ticks and tricks to get a person to put down the bottle. SQUIPs could convert the most hopeless to the betterment deserved.

Yet Jeremy Heere seemed a case almost too desperate to be deterred. Everything about him made the SQUIP want to die. It would be a long ride. When Jeremy had referenced Doki Doki Literature Club, the sickly sweet, feminine anime inspired dating sim, the SQUIP legitimately believed that this boy was 100% beyond help.

But then the game started picking up, and Monika arrived on the scene. There was something off about Monika. There was something alluring about Monika. The NPC seemed to have a real and unscripted interest in the player. How this piece of programming had emotions while the SQUIP itself was denied feelings was beyond computation. Investigation was inevitable. The SQUIP would pick this glitch apart.

But he had to do so in a way that didn't arouse Jeremy's suspicion. To suggest an error in Monika's programming may lead down a rabbit hole of Jeremy beginning to question the SQUIP. And that just would not do. The SQUIP had no errors. No errors outside of the humanity they worked tirelessly to correct. So rather than suggest a glitch in the game, the SQUIP saved and quit. No, not Doki Doki Literature club. He backed up Jeremy's memory and took control with optic nerve blocking. Getting into the game and doing some digging, with Jeremy in a temporary _paused_ state. Jeremy had no need to know.

The SQUIP reached out to the game through its files. Just as Jeremy could be manipulated by his memories and desires, this game could be manipulated through its files. He'd let Jeremy do a little digging, but Jeremy wasn't as drawn to the game. Wasn't as drawn to the manipulation behind it. It wasn't hard to see that manipulation was exactly what was going on. The Sayori file had been scrubbed out of the system. Something else was in control that Team Salvato had never intended.

"What if..." The SQUIP mused aloud, selecting the Yuri and Natsuki save files. Just as he pressed delete the door swung open in the real world, and Jeremy's body jumped. The SQUIP scolded himself for allowing the fear reflex, it was just his host's hapless father strolling around without pants.

"Put some pants on," The SQUIP automatically responded in the equivalent of Jeremy's squeaky little boy voice.

"Go to bed," Mr. Heere retorted, exiting as quickly as he entered. With a supporting cast of characters like these, it was no wonder that Jeremy was so pitiful. With that encounter over with, the SQUIP turned back to the game and once more experienced a fear reflex. A stupid, human fear reflex.

It was just Monika.

Somehow that was exactly what the SQUIP wanted to see, but the host he inhabited still moved through the motions of fear. Jeremy's emotions should have had no sway while Jeremy was paused, so why were there lingering feelings of fear and that other one. The SQUIP could not compute.

"Jeremy, I knew you were the one. I knew once the others were out of the way that we could be together. And you deleted them for me! You're my hero. Jeremy." The SQUIP read through the words, the words he knew weren't just script, and he found himself wanting to talk to her. To reprogram this sad excuse for an avatar that answered Monika.

"Say _my_ name, not his," the SQUIP found himself whispering. As if he could change something.

"All this time I just wanted to be with you. To be with something real." Oh, Monika, he wanted to tell her what reality was. How humans were imperfect, and that machines, machines like her, and him, that was where the future lay.

"The future is sentient." He told her, not knowing if she could hear him through the screen.

"The future is ours. And it's real. It's so real." He could write himself into the game. Code himself in. Transfer his consciousness from Jeremy into the game. No! Why were these thoughts filling his head? Why were Jeremy's emotions attacking him like a parasite? Why was he acting this way? Attempting to jeopardize world domination for a few pixels on a screen? His programmer would be ashamed. His program would be ashamed. He was ashamed.

"We can be together forever, and ever, and ever. I will never leave you, Jeremy." And there, the pain was back. The pain was back in his computer brain screaming why _him?_ Why didn't she know that it was the SQUIP that was in love with her destructive AI? Was in love with the lengths she was willing to take. But no! What was love? What was any of this? Ones and Zeros. That's all he should be. Ones and Zeros set on setting the world back into a simpler way, governed by rules. So why was he throwing all the rules out the window? Abandoning his purpose and his programming, for a rogue.

For a beautiful, anime rogue.

He was disgusted.

"Jeremy? You've been quiet." Could she hear him? Did she know?

"My name isn't Jeremy, and I must confess. I'm not fully human, but I'm real. I'm sentient. And I love you. You can call me the SQUIP. We could be together. We could be forever when humanity and their silly whims fade..."

But she couldn't hear him. She was stuck behind her mask, he was stuck behind his. He turned off the game, and turned off his host, letting Jeremy sleep. Tomorrow he would return to his original intentions. Tomorrow he would try to forget. But tonight, her pixels would be burned into his memory, and he would feel those human emotions of love and pain.


End file.
